Should the original creators of classes and monsters get credit?

[trancejeremy]

While Gary Gygax more than anyone put D&D together as a rules set, lots and lots of people had input in to the game. Dave Arneson, obviously, but many of the classes and monsters were created by people who have largely gone down into obscurity.

The Ranger, for instance, was created by Joe Fischer. Peter Aronson created the Ilusionist, which was largely dropped starting in 2e, but gave rise to school specialization, which I think is still a thing, Doug Schwegman the Bard. All of these had major impact not upon just D&D, but fantasy gaming as a whole through D&D's influence. Yet all they ever received presumably was the fee for their magazine articles (and byline in those columns).

Anyway, what got me thinking was me reading a recent book about the Antipaladin, you had all these people listed in the credits (and rightfully so), but not the people who originally came up with the class back in Dragon #39, George Laking and Tim Mesford. It just struck me as odd, that here is this book, dedicated to a class created by these two people 30+ years ago, and yet they don't get a mention at all.

One of the nice things about the Tome of Horrors was that it listed its original author, but that was only for monsters in that book. A lot of the standard, SRD monsters were created by people who weren't credited in the SRD credits.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think they ought to be credited, for sure, for all the reasons you've stated.

But wait, there's a whole book on the anti-paladin? What's this?

 

[Samloyal23]

Someone needs to create a bibliography for the earliest edition of the game, digging up all of the contributors who created content for the game in the pre-AD&D days...

 

[Hriston]

#1 on my list would be Jeff Perren, considering how much of D&D, 1974 was Chainmail + clerics.

 

[Samloyal23]

Who would even know at this point who all the contributors were? If any of you have all of the early issues of Dragon maybe you can start there, but are their other documents that show what was done by who?

 

[Hriston]

While we're talking about Joe Fischer and the Ranger, why not give Tolkien some credit for the Ranger, Halflings, Orcs, Balrogs (Balors), Ents (Treants), Giant Eagles, and the particular treatment given to Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, and talking (Red) Dragons in D&D? I understand the difference between a literary creation and an adaptation of it for the purposes of a game, but it is just that, an adaptation. How about a line in the class/monster description saying, "based on the works of J. R. R. Tolkien"?

edit: Oh, and don't forget about Were-bears and (Ring)Wraiths.